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Germans are fighting back with humour! The country’s number one hit is called Der Steuersong (The Tax Song), and has found fertile ground in the hearts of a nation fed up with broken election promises and increasing taxes.
The song that shot to the top of Germany’s pop charts with more than 350,000 copies sold within a week is a spoof sung by Schroeder’s impersonator, Elmar Brandt, who has captured the mood of the country in the lyrics:
“Promises that were made yesterday can be broken today….”
“I’ll raise your taxes, I’ll empty your pockets, every one of you nerds stashes some cash away, but I’ll find it no matter where it is…”
“I’ll raise taxes now because the election is over and you can’t fire me now…”
“We could raise a ‘bad weather tax’, or an ‘earth-surface usage tax’, a levy for breathing, air’s going to become more expensive, and I’m only getting started..”
“A tooth tax for chewing, bio tax for digestion – nothing’s free anymore…”
Schroeder’s government of Social Democrat-Greens has slumped dramatically in voter surveys since the September 22 polls after breaking election promises not to raise taxes. On Monday Schroeder announced another new tax on equities and property sales – which the conservative opposition called the 49th new tax since he was first elected in 1998.
“I’ll rip you nerds off, you’ll be overpowered, I’m always in for a surprise…”
“There is no tax that I can’t collect. I want your bank notes, your sweaters, your cash and your piggy banks…”
“Dog tax, tobacco tax, car tax, ecological tax – did you really think that was the end of the line? Like a pirate hunting for income, I’ll raise all your taxes and if you’re broke, you can buy your food at a discount store or go hungry…”
I am not sure it sounds better in German (here is the full English translation) but the spirit of the song is sound. Ordinary Germans say that “it sums up what we’re all thinking.” Fed up with taxes? Well, what are you going to do about it?
While doing some research on my previous news item, I ran across this fascinating article on the WWII German nuclear weapons program.
Much of it was shrouded in mystery and misrepresentation prior to the declassification of the “Farm Hall Reports” discussed in the aforementioned link. Werner Heisenberg was caught out by statements he made in a bugged room when first told of the American bombs. It is quite apparent he was indeed committed to building a German nuclear weapon and might have if not for an egregious theoretical error.
Sometimes the gods do smile on us.
Of all people, the Germans have gone and stuck the boot into the fledgling Euro. By rejecting warnings from the European Commission about their swelling budget deficit, they have done just a little more to hasten the decline of the Euro to the status of Monopoly money
The warnings in question arise as a result of the Germans breaching the Stability and Growth Pact drawn up in 1997 (mostly by the Germans, ironically) and which limited Eurozone countries to a ceiling on their budget deficits of 3 percent of GDP. Clearly an intended shackle on high-spending governments, it was seen as a bitter pill that had to be swallowed if the Euro was going to attract investment and prove a success
But, it appears, that the success of the Euro is as nothing when compared to the prospect of losing an election. Germany’s economy is deep in recession, unemployment is already at 4.5 million and rising and Gerhard Schroder knows that unless he can dole out the largesse before the next election then his name will be added to that growing list
The German deficit is already at 2.7 percent and will assuredly go over the 3 percent barrier in the next few months. The German government have told the Commission to go and take a flying f*ck but has promised to reduce its deficit to zero by 2004 (and if anyone believes that, then I have a bridge in Sarajevo to sell them)
The ‘Stability Pact’ balloon is going up, filled with all the hot-air about ‘reform’
Still, I couldn’t be happier. If Gerhard Schroder has done his bit to hasten the demise of the Euro then my Valentine Card is already on its way to Berlin to tell him that he has a not-so-secret admirer in London
A young German couple were sentenced today after being found guilty of the murder of a friend in a Satanic Ritual.
The couple claimed to be under the influence of Satan when they stabbed the young man to death after luring him to their home.
In their defence they both said that they were “only obeying orders”.
Some things just never change, eh.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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